


Metallic Love

by violethowler



Category: Red Rising Series - Pierce Brown, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Red Rising setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, Gold Juliet, One Shot, Silver Romeo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 02:36:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16735455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violethowler/pseuds/violethowler
Summary: Star-crossed lovers will always be star-crossed, no matter the setting.





	Metallic Love

**Author's Note:**

> So, I took a class on the basics of storytelling this past term at college, and for our final project, we had to write and present a story we wrote ourselves. Since we studied two different Shakespeare plays, our professor said we were allowed to write something based on an existing source. I took the opportunity to write out an idea for Red Rising fanfiction that I'd had rattling around in my heads for months: an AU with the cast of one of Shakespeare's plays in the setting of Pierce Brown's Red Rising saga. 
> 
> I chose Romeo and Juliet specifically because there were a lot of parallels between the Capulet-Montague feud and the Augustus-Bellona feud. 
> 
> The books have a lot of heavy themes, but my fic doesn't really touch on them except as a passing reference. If you feel I should add any tags, please let me know.

There was a sense of anonymity in the lowDistrict brothels that she could never find in high class Pearl Clubs like Tryst or Temptation, one that was essential to both Romeo’s survival, and hers. The minute Juliet set foot in either of those clubs, she’d be recognized by dozens of people who either worked for her parents or else were connected to people who worked for her parents. She wouldn’t get the view from the top of one of the city’s many jeweled skyscrapers that pierced the ground like swords, but at least she didn’t run the risk of one of her father’s stooges reporting her and Romeo. Paranoia and dingy conditions were still vastly preferable to execution.

Still, the surrounding area wasn’t all bad. The brothel they’d chosen for their rendezvous tonight had windows on the upper levels that offered a decent view of the landscape outside the city. The capital’s perimeter walls hung like a curtain around the city limits, but she could still see the high cliffs of the Valles Marineras rising in the distance through the atmospheric dome that protected the planet’s inhabitants as lowReds labored beneath the surface of Mars to make the planet habitable. Up in the night sky, the twin moons Phobos and Deimos bathed the capital city in pale, ethereal light. With a final look out the window, she turned back inside and headed toward the table where she knew her lover was waiting.

In the last year, the Montagues had risen to become one of the richest families on Mars, so naturally Lord Capulet hated them with a marrow deep passion. It wasn’t just because the Capulets were an ancient bloodline dating back to the Conquering, while the Montagues were only just beginning to make their fortune. Nor was it only because of their growing influence among Martian high society. It wasn’t even the fact that Romeo’s father had personally insulted Lord Capulet at a public function. It was the simple fact that the Montagues were Silver, and the Capulets Gold. 

In the six hundred years since the Iron Ancestors had conquered Old Earth, Society had clung to one code above all others: The Hierarchy. Each Color on the pyramid corresponded to a function in society, stratified and enforced by centuries of genetic engineering and eugenics programs. Blues flew starships and aircraft. Greens programmed and developed the latest technology. Oranges were mechanics. Yellows were doctors. Grays were soldiers and police officers. Whites were priests and judges. Coppers were lawyers and bureaucrats. Silvers were bankers and accountants. The slave labor of Reds, Pinks, Obsidians, and Browns formed the base of the pyramid, while the Gold aristocrats who lead the rebellion against Earth lived at the top in extravagant wealth and luxury. The midColors had nominal freedom, but all were ultimately subservient to the whims of their Golden overlords. 

While publicly frowned upon, Gold using lowColors to satisfy their carnal desires was commonplace. That was what Pinks were for, after all. But actively courting and maintaining a consensual romance with someone of lesser social status courted more than gossip and derision. If they were discovered, Romeo would be taken by the Board of Quality Control for interrogation. They would torture him, kill his entire family, and then execute him. All while her father’s position would shield Juliet from all consequence. Her privilege was an unspoken elephant in the room. A reminder that while Romeo was a year older than her, she was the one who had more power in their relationship.

She spotted him waiting in a secluded booth at the back of the brothel, a hooded cloak shielding his silver hair from view. She reached into her pocket as she slid into the booth and activated the jamField with a small _pop!_

“I was worried you wouldn’t be able to make it tonight,” he commented as he removed his hood. Juliet pulled back her own, silently thanking her nurse for insisting on such a thorough disguise. Her golden hair had been dyed white, and her contacts were designed to give her the appearance of an unusually short Obsidian. The Sigils on her hands had been covered up with makeup and fake prosthetics she’d acquired from a nearby Carver’s shop to complete the illusion.

“It took a bit more effort to prepare my disguise,” she replied, taking care to ensure her Aureate highLingo didn’t slip through her fake accent. “But it was worth it.”

The two lovers were silent for a moment as they positioned themselves in the booth to provide a better view of the club. Just because they had taken precautions to disguise their identities didn’t mean they were going to let their guard down. Once they were secure and had a visual on the exit, they started trading stories of what they’d been up to since they’d seen each other last. Not much had changed in the last few weeks, but it made Juliet smile to hear her lover talk about sitting in on his father’s business deals. And his grin as she told him the latest gossip of her father’s court was like the sun peaking through the clouds on a rainy day. Juliet loved her family, but they could often be too restrictive, too controlling. Her illicit relationship with Romeo had given her a chance at escape. Someone she could confide in without every word she said inevitably finding its way back to be whispered in her parents’ ears. Weeks would often pass in between her and Romeo’s secret dates, but she cherished them all the same.

Despite the dingy conditions, their evening passed pleasantly, and as Juliet’s curfew neared, the two lovers went their separate ways. It was disappointing that Juliet should only be able to meet him in disguise while telling her parents she was going horseback riding with her friends, but that was the world she lived in. Not that any of them were _really_ her friends anyway. At most, they were the children of her parents’ bannermen hoping to gain prestige by cozying up to the youngest scion of House Capulet.

Under the cover of night, Juliet snuck back into the Capulet estate. Having removed the contact lenses and mask in the aircar she’d ridden home, she kept herself concealed beneath a ghostCloak as she crept invisibly across the grounds. Looking both ways to make sure the guard patrols were not nearby, she scrambled up the wall and knocked on the bedroom window. Her nanny’s lilac hair glistened in the moonlight as she opened the window and pulled the Capulet heiress inside. Almost as soon as the window was closed, the woman began to lecture Juliet about the danger she was courting by associating with the Montague boy. Juliet simply tuned her out as she deactivated the ghostCloak and moved to put it away. She had heard these warnings many times before, and she was fully prepared to accept the consequences of her choices.

What rankled her most was the fact that should they be discovered, Romeo would be dragged off to prison, and her father would probably marry her off to some other Golden lord he was hoping to form an alliance with. Probably Augustus, if only because he despised the Bellona. He was often ranting about the “curly-haired pixies” whenever he returned home from work. The Capulet fortune had been in decline of late, and her father was eager to restore the family’s standing. They were still the sixth most powerful family on Mars, but Lord Capulet refused to accept such denigration. Especially not when the rising wealth of newly moneyed Silvers like the Montagues stood to lower his standing even further.

But Juliet did not wish to be wed off to some rising star for the sake of her father’s pride, nor could she bear the thought of sitting idly by while Romeo endured unspeakable agony for the crime of loving a Gold. The thought of life without him in it was unbearable, and she dreaded what her father had planned for her once she made it through the Institute. There was only one way to tie their fates together to such an extent that she might share his punishment for their affair. But to go through with it would burn all bridges with her father. At best, he would disown her, and leave her free to build a life with Romeo in secret. At worst, his Greens would find her coded messages left on the dead drop she and Romeo shared. They would find her love notes to him, and his to her. And her father would report her to the Board of Quality Control himself.

Their relationship continued for months, each night they met bringing with it the weight of the question Juliet was wrestling with. Was this relationship, this love, worth giving up everything for? Was it worth it to destroy her entire life for a man when she had never been in a relationship before? She could risk everything, only to realize that she and Romeo didn’t work out in the long run. So great was her distress that she asked what her old nurse she thought she should do one night as they were washing the dye from her hair after her latest rendezvous with Romeo.

“Love is a fragile thing, my dear,” the aging Pink told her as she wrapped a towel around the young woman’s head. “It is something rare and fleeting in this world, and if you believe it is worth it, you must be willing to risk everything for it. But if you choose to go down this road, understand that if you are lucky and your father merely disowns you, I will no longer be able to help you. It is madness to even speak of this, so if you go through with this, you and your beloved will be on your own.”

Her nurse’s words did little to help her, save to add more weight to the consequences of her decision. A mountain of arguments made a case for why this idea was foolhardy and suicidal. But the thought of losing her sweet Romeo and being condemned to life as a glorified broodmare for whichever family her father married her off to terrified her more than the horrors that would surely await inside the Board’s headquarters at Whitehold. If her decision was ultimately a choice between physical death alongside her lover, or a slow death of the soul by a thousand cuts as her family chipped away at her freedom, she would rather leave this world together with Romeo. And so, when next they met, she told him of her desire.

“I want a child."


End file.
